El Fabiolo set for Sandown as Mullins chases title glory

EL FABIOLO will bid to aid Willie Mullins’ quest to be crowned Britain’s champion jumps trainer by contesting the bet365 Celebration Chase on the final day of the season at Sandown.

With the Randox Grand National success of I Am Maximus at Aintree seeing Mullins hit the front in the title race, he is keen to grab what he believes would be a “once in a lifetime achievement” with both hands, as he looks to fend of Dan Skelton and perennial champion Paul Nicholls.

As is usually the case, most of the Mullins big guns are being readied to round off the campaign at the Punchestown Festival between April 30 and May 4. But star two- miler El Fabiolo could forego an outing in County Kildare to instead head back across the Irish Sea the previous Saturday, with the £ 170,000 Celebration Chase likely to have a major bearing on where the championship ultimately ends up.

“El Fabiolo will definitely go to Sandown,” Mullins said. “The Celebration Chase is an important race and it looks like a big race that we have the winning of, which would be huge. A lot will depend on what happens between now and Punchestown, [ but] looking at it, we’re about £ 50,000 in front, so if we won that [ Celebration Chase], one of the other guys would have to win another feature and probably another race to pass us.

“It’s a three- score game at the moment, but Paul is really a master of winning the championship and he will have his tactics in his head already. He could win the Scottish National and the bet365 Gold Cup and blow us out of the water, but you need a lot of luck to do that too.

“We’re just hoping that we can get one nice prize – and with a bit of luck, it will make it difficult then for Dan and Paul. It’s a once in a lifetime achievement if we can manage to pull it off, so we’re going to put everything into it.”

El Fabiolo will be on a retrieval mission if he does turn up at Sandown after a bad mistake led to him being pulled up as a 2- 9 favourite for the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

Mullins said: “He just wasn’t right when he came back from Cheltenham, so I just gave him a break and let him find his feet, so he’s bucking and kicking the last few mornings.

“Sometimes you just give a horse a break and let him recuperate and he’s done that and seems in good form now.”